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The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#137: From 'Homeschooled' Movie to Real Life: This Is Kristi's Story
What happens when you throw out rigid timelines and arbitrary benchmarks, allowing children to learn at their own pace in ways that honor their unique personalities? Kristi's 11-year homeschooling journey with her three daughters reveals the transformative power of personalized education.
When her introverted third-grader with learning difficulties asked to homeschool, Kristi—despite having no prior knowledge of homeschooling—took the leap. Within two years, she brought all three daughters home, discovering that the full benefits came when the entire family shared the same educational approach. This shift opened extraordinary possibilities: four-day school weeks, regular RV camping trips, skiing adventures that started on Thursdays, and meaningful participation in the family's citrus farm.
Most remarkably, Kristi's approach to her oldest daughter's learning challenges demonstrates the power of patience and personalization. Working "one to two years behind typical grade level for a very long time" and even repeating ninth grade at the student's request, this daughter eventually caught up naturally. By age 15-16, professional assessments showed she qualified for no learning disorders whatsoever. Today, she attends Concordia University with a substantial academic scholarship.
Interest-led learning transformed their homeschool experience. When a child loved horses, they studied equine science for a year. When another was fascinated by birds, they created habitats around their home that now attract unique species their neighbors don't have. Their youngest daughter's inexplicable passion for the Beatles as a preschooler evolved into studying 60s history in ninth grade. As Kristi explains, "I think you get some passionate, extraordinary individuals by really customizing and letting them be interest-led in everything they do."
Considering homeschooling? Kristi's advice is refreshingly simple: "Homeschool should and can look different in every single household." You can always return to conventional schooling if needed—they'll take you back.
Kristi's Instagram
'Homeschooled' the movie: WHERE TO WATCH: https://homeschooledthemovie.com/where-to-watch
Curriculum discussed: Teaching Textbooks, Moving Beyond the Page, Apologia, IEW, Amal Unbound, Rutus Apetis, Alan Gratz, Under the Painted Sky
Cheryl's Guide to Homeschooling: Check out The Homeschool How To Complete Starter Guide- Cheryl's eBook compiling everything she's learned from her interviews on The Homeschool How To Podcast.
👉 15% off Tuttle Twins books with code Cheryl15
What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease: Let's Talk, Emergencies!
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Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region? And should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. You're making me feel very um, I just ate dinner like slacking a little bit. I was doing a little intermittent fasting last week and then I gave up. I want to get back into it. But give me some inspiration, christy, oh well.
Speaker 2:I'm just uh, I turned 50 this year and I'm just trying to stay mobile and flexible. So I'm headed to a new stretching and conditioning like inversion class tonight. So we'll see. We'll see how that goes, so try to slide things in where I can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's hard because I feel like at some aspects I'm like all right, we're going to be so healthy and eat organic and no alcohol and we're going to get our exercise in, get the sweating in, do the intermittent fasting and then the next breath. I'm like they're just trying to kill us from every aspect. I give up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. You can't sweat everything.
Speaker 1:That is absolutely the case, but yeah, I'll be. Uh, today is my half birthday. So I'm like, oh my God, in six months I'll be 42. So I'm like where. I'm like, yeah, we really have to start thinking about, like, the cell regeneration, which is why I was doing the intermittent fasting for the autophagy. Okay, yep, so that, like, is your body's own mechanism to repair cells.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're either working on your illness or your wellness, so it's much more fun to be proactive.
Speaker 1:That's for sure I love that. Oh, my God, I love that. Okay, so you're a homeschooling mom? Yes, have been for 11 years. What made you now you look completely normal? So, because the people just think of homeschoolers and this was me before I started interviewing them. Like you've got to be like Amish sewing your clothes you know, so tell me, how did you get into homeschooling?
Speaker 2:Well, I have three daughters and my oldest at the time was in third grade and they were at a private Christian school and, you know, everything was good. Never knew anything about homeschooling growing up, didn't know any homeschoolers, knew nothing about it. My third grader started asking to homeschool because it was, you know, in growing popularity at that time. So that was you know, mid, early 2010s and I was like, what are you talking about? Well, she was very introverted and had some learning difficulties, so that just created a lot of stress for her going to school, even though she was in a very loving, supportive environment. So I'm like, really.
Speaker 2:So I started researching it and looking at best practices in education and also she needed some supportive services, but private schools typically don't provide those. So they were suggesting, okay, well, you know, you can get them through your school district. So, and then the school district said, oh well, you should probably send her to public school. And I just wasn't wild about that at the time. I'm like, if she's nervous in a loving, small, private Christian school, homeschool environment, sending her to public school, where there's a lot more kids and all that kind of stuff, probably wasn't going to help her. It would have felt more like a punishment, in a sense, sending her to a different school. So I said, okay, fine, let's give it a try. And so for fourth grade we started homeschooling and within two years I brought home the other two, because I just realized that to get the full benefit you really need the whole family on the same program, if possible.
Speaker 1:You know, and I've never heard anyone worded that way. That's cool.
Speaker 2:How come Just having everyone on the same schedule. It's because I was still dealing with school schedules and still having to drive back and forth and all that kind of stuff Once we brought everyone home. Step one was we didn't do Friday school at all till probably high school, so school went down to four days a week. We are a family that had a motor home prior to homeschooling. We do desert camping, we do road trips, things of that nature, so we were able to really expand on that. We got ski passes for Mammoth Mountain Resort in Central California, so then we would leave for skiing Thursday morning several times a winter and we would actually camp in our RV and then ski for the weekend and come home Sunday night, monday if we wanted to. So we really embraced it. We also live on a hobby citrus farm and I say hobby because it's not like our primary, you know, income source. So our kids were able to participate in some of the harvesting things of that nature. So we made the most of it in every sense of the word.
Speaker 1:I love. It All right. So you've got three girls, and what are their ages?
Speaker 2:now, right, now they're 19. And then I have two birthdays this month, so there'll be 17 and 14.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're like at the end of the road for the older girls.
Speaker 2:So how did?
Speaker 1:that go? How did the high school years go?
Speaker 2:So the oldest one homeschooled all the way through, had no um regrets, never looked back, never second guessed her choice, and she was always very, very slow to warm up. So we did. It was great because I was able to just adjust to her level, because kids just need to be a little bit challenged. The grade level is irrelevant and I'll tell you why. With her, she worked about one to two years behind typical grade level for a very long time In fact. Once we got to ninth grade she insisted on doing ninth grade twice and I just was like Lila, you can handle this, but I just let her do it because that's what she was comfortable with. And so we did that and then fast forward.
Speaker 2:By the way, I did some services through the school district for about a year, year and a half, with her reading issues and then we just kind of dropped it and it all worked itself out. So right around the time she was 15 or 16, I got her reassessed privately. I just paid two different sources to assess her for any kind of disorders, if you will, and she qualified for nothing, which would tell me that working at a child's appropriate pace and helping them to regulate their nervous system and really working with their personality is what they need instead of all these labels and interventions. I mean sometimes they need that. But for her it worked out great. She started doing dual enrollment at a private university as a high schooler. She finished a handful of classes and then she went into Concordia University in Southern California with a big academic scholarship as a full-time homeschooler with a private school affidavit Like we're fully off the radar. We aren't part of a charter school or anything like that. So she's now going into her sophomore year of college doing excellent.
Speaker 1:So okay, how did you get everything together for her quote unquote like graduation? Were you the one that filled out her diploma or did that have to go through a state source? How did you make sure that she had all of the prerequisites?
Speaker 2:They're basically, if if the question is in regards to college, some colleges are more homeschool friendly than others, so just do your research and figure out who is. I made the transcripts I mean, I got some help, but there's nothing super fancy about them for her college application and it was no big deal there. Honestly, we never even did a diploma there isn't one. But there was a local private school satellite program that did a graduation and she just participated with them because we got a social membership so she could go to their prom and that kind of thing. So she got the ceremony and that for graduation. So you know, we loosely followed what is a standard, if you will, but California has this A to G requirement thing. We didn't do any of that.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm in New York, so we are equally like crazy, yeah, got it, yeah, it's equally crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. We got rid of Cuomo and then we got like Cuomo's like worst nightmare. Yeah, yeah, no, but I love that and I love that you said that, because parents are, how are they ever going to get into college? Like they're so worried and part of it is too like, if you're stepping out of the system, do you want them to go to college? Like why, if your kid really has a dream of being something that needs a college degree, yeah, but I think it's that Did you ever take that step with her and say do we want to go to college?
Speaker 2:Okay and I agree with you 100% on everything you're saying. But for our situation I customized everything to her and really and I mean this in the nicest way possible but she was very coddled all the way through school. Nothing was hard. Well, in terms of like scary and really stretching out of her comfort zone, we participated in a homeschool co-op. That is local, that's K through 12th grade, so we went to classes one day a week so she got, you know, some of that school experience there. But there was probably about 15 kids per grade level, maybe 20. So it wasn't huge, very manageable, and we had a lot of positive experiences there.
Speaker 2:But a big part of me, once I started homeschooling and brought all the kids in, I was like okay, what do I want to do here? And for me, managing money, work ethic, good mental health these are foundational. I don't really care what your level of education is. So we worked a lot on that, but in that I wanted my kids working. Well, she had the opportunity as a 15 year old to start working at my husband's office and he has a small light manufacturing firm like 10 minutes away. So she started working in the office there as a 15 year old, and then I had her start investing so she understands how to manage money. She's got a Roth IRA, she's got a taxable account for a down payment on a house whenever she's ready to buy one, that kind of thing. So then she decided I want to work here forever, so I'm just going to work full time and not go to college. Well, we had a 529 account and I'm like everything's been very coddled and easy. Now you didn't have to apply for a job. You're going to go to college. You're not going to get an executive level position without the credentials to back it up.
Speaker 2:Yes, does college have limited value? Certainly. Is some of it a disaster? Absolutely. Is it necessary? No, but for her, I wanted her to get some education that was separate from the home, separate from our little co op, and since the funds were there and she got this big scholarship, great. So that's why, for her situation, we're sending her. So her entire undergrad college is 1800 students. So it's very small, it's very personal, it's more of a conservative place, so so it's a good fit for her. So that's a good fit for her.
Speaker 1:So that's why we chose for her situation and I think what it breaks down to is intention, like why are we doing it? Have you thought about your reasons for why you're pushing your child to college? Is it just because you want to make it look nice to the neighbors that, yes, I was a successful homeschool mom, my kid got into college Right, or we think that makes them successful? Or is it that they really want? Is it going to benefit them in some way?
Speaker 2:And I think that's totally something that we all need to think about Because I went to college, because I was just like I don't want to be a loser, but like I still ended up like someone miserable behind a cubicle Totally and so many people end up not working in a field that has anything to do with their education, and my biggest thing is I don't want anyone going into debt over it, so I would never, ever advocate for that. I actually, in my homeschooling career, ended up creating a class for high school homeschoolers called Foundations for Success, and so that's been very popular. On what do you actually need to learn to be a successful independent adult so that's something that came out of my homeschool experience and so that's been very popular and I'm gearing up for this will be school year five, teaching it right now. So we talk about stress management and nutrition, nervous system regulation, organization, time management, best practices in relationship, career hobbies, just being intentional about things, thinking about it, finances, really basics on investing, being connected in your community, what that means.
Speaker 2:What does spirituality mean? How does it fit with everything? And it's been. I've had a lot of great feedback. In fact, I've had a lot of kids repeat the class voluntarily. They said it's the best class they've ever had. So 50% of my students this fall are returning students, so that's fun.
Speaker 1:So is that something we can link in the show's description that anyone could take?
Speaker 2:I haven't done that yet, but people have talked to have said, hey, are you going to record it and sell it? But I people have talked to have said, hey, are you going to record it and sell it? Are you going to offer it live online? I haven't done it yet, but you know that's something that I might do. Um, I guess, uh, I mean my Instagram's public. They could always look me up and, um, you know, dm me if somebody wanted more information, something like that We'll put your Instagram in the show's description so people can find that.
Speaker 1:So that's really cool in the show's description, so people can find that. So that's really cool. So, okay, now, you also just recently participated in, like, the production of a movie, right yes, about homeschooling.
Speaker 2:Yes, I got a random DM a couple of years ago and this producer said, hey, you know, we're doing a documentary on homeschooling and just want to bring some awareness to it. And was it Kirk Cameron? No, no, it was K factor films is the production company. And so you know, at first you're like, is this a scam or whatever? Right, I said, well, you know. I said my middle kid might be interested, super outgoing.
Speaker 2:So when I brought her home to homeschool she was a very accelerated student, very outgoing. So what worked out great for her is I moved her up a grade level immediately and she felt so proud of herself and motivated and so excited that you know. So that worked out. So that kid. I said, hey, do you want to try to do this audition? So she did it, and then she got to the second round, and then she got to the third round. Then they want to do a family audition on Zoom. Okay, so we did that. And then we heard she got the part, because they followed I think it was going to be four students and just kind of tell about their lives and they said, ok, well, the whole family has to be in it, pardon me. So I was like, are you kidding me? So they did it.
Speaker 2:So it was really neat. It was actually a really fun experience. They filmed in our house for probably about three full days. They followed us to our homeschool co-op. They followed me in the classroom a little bit and it wasn't exactly what I envisioned it. When you say documentary and homeschooling, I'm thinking it's like this educational how-to and all the different ways. It wasn't that at all. They made it really fun and cute and more like a little one episode reality. But it was great. It was really really fun and neat experience. And then they took, we went to Beverly Hills and they filmed they had through a prom. That was the whole end of it. It's like homeschoolers don't get a prom, so we're going to throw them a prom. So we had this whole prom on this rooftop and Beverly Hills and it was. It was pretty magical.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that was so funny that you say that, because I don't hear that a lot people talking about the prom thing. But in my first episode so we're at like 130 something now. My first episode I was like I'm really fearful that my kids will resent me for not having a prom, thinking about homeschooling but don't know where to start. Well, I've interviewed a few people on the topic Actually 120 interviews at this point with homeschooling families from across the country and the world. 120 interviews at this point with homeschooling families from across the country and the world and what I've done is I've packed everything I've learned into an ebook called the Homeschool how to Complete Starter Guide. From navigating your state's laws to finding your homeschooling style, from working while homeschooling to supporting kids with special needs, this guide covers it all, with real stories from real families who've walked this path.
Speaker 1:I've taken the best insights, the best resources and put them all walked this path. I've taken the best insights, the best resources and put them all into this guide. Stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling confident. Get your copy of the Homeschool How-To Complete Starter Guide today and discover that homeschooling isn't just about education. It's about getting what you want out of each day, not what somebody else wants out of you. You can grab the link to this e-book in the show's description or head on over to the homeschool how tocom and the football games like that traditional experience and no one really brings that up too much and I'll try to bring it up to people. But you saying it like it is a real fear because that's what we knew as quote unquote normalcy and some kids don't want it and they don't care anymore.
Speaker 2:So there's that. But also it's very easy to throw one together, honestly. I mean, if you're in a town of I don't know, probably at least a thousand people, which most people are they're close to a town with a thousand or 10,000 people throw a homeschool prom, right, it's not too hard.
Speaker 1:I never thought of that before. And because it's almost like you, don't you think you'd be the only one homeschooling before you start doing it. And then you start doing it and you're like oh my god, you people are everywhere. You're like cockroaches. Yes, out of the wall, totally yes. You can just spot each other because you're like you're not using plastic. You must be a homeschooler, right?
Speaker 2:exactly like super granola you must be whatever, or a total fundamental, like extremist and your ideas, or whatever, and we are none of the above on that, so that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Did the movie come out yet?
Speaker 2:yes, the movie was released june 1st and it's on amazon prime video, maybe other streaming services, but I know it's on amazon for sure. It's simply called homeschooled and it's adorable. So so and it profiles, like, I think, four different homeschoolers that all are from California, but a very different stories.
Speaker 1:So I love that Cause I was looking for something like that before I got started. I found something, but it was like overseas or maybe it was just about traditional schooling and like how the differences between America and China or whatever Got it. So I would. But I was looking for exactly that because I'm like homeschooling sounds so terrifying. What is a day in the life look like, and I was looking for a movie just like that, so I will link that in the show's description so that people can check that out, and I'm going to check it out too.
Speaker 1:So that's so cool, all right. So you have the 14 year old. 14 year old Now. Actually, I was going to ask you this how did it go with skipping the grade for your middle child? Because, like, how did you know that that was the right move to make and are we going to miss anything? Or did you just speed through the grade that you were skipping, like were you afraid that you were going to miss a fundamental step?
Speaker 2:No, because everything really everything's on repeat, every single thing's on repeat. You're kind of doing the same things every year. I mean, maybe your history is a different topic or whatever, but when you're talking about your basics of ELA and math it's just everything's a spiral repeat. So I wasn't concerned about that and the confidence boost for her was really fun and she just embraced the challenge. So you really need to look at your students individually and kind of don't worry about anything, because I mean, think about, if I was worried about trying to catch my oldest up to some arbitrary timeline, I would have stressed her out, I would have stressed myself out. Every day would have been upsetting.
Speaker 2:And she ended up doing college classes by her junior year of high school and was completely fine. But what's the hurry? Why? You know they all walk and talk and do all these other things at a little bit of a different time. So the idea that they need to be at this certain spot by halfway through third grade is dumb. So I know they need benchmarks and regular school to try to make sure everybody is kind of on track.
Speaker 2:But just, I would just encourage people to really give themselves grace and and my kid was very anxious when she came home, that older one, and she loved horses, so we started our day with horseback riding lessons. I want to say it was two or three days a week, so she would spend two, three hours at the ranch, then come home after her sunshine, her outdoors and all that kind of stuff. Then we would do school, and she also was kind of scattered at the time, so instead of like trying to shove a lid down on a pot of boiling water, I would set up stations. So math was set up here and science was set up here and ELA was set up here, and so if you need a break, then we just moved to a different topic. So we just worked within the parameters of their personality. So that's what you kind of get to learn, and every year has kind of looked different, based on what they needed.
Speaker 1:Okay, and now did you have to leave a job or career to stay home with the kids in homeschool?
Speaker 2:No, I do some, I manage our own. We've got some properties, some houses, so I managed that and I was at when I first started homeschooling I still had a three-year-old, so I was. I'm a licensed therapist by profession and I had left that profession when my kids were little and so I just put that on hold for the last 11 years and I just renewed my license last year and went back into private practice this calendar year, part-time, so cause you know they're older now, but so no, it was okay, it worked out fine, oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:And then all right, so you have all the girls. How, how did you make it Like you said? You went to the ranch so that your oldest could horseback ride. What were the other two doing? Like, did you have to be at the ranch with her, could you like? How did your day? No, I could drop her off.
Speaker 2:It was tough at first, but remember that first year I just had the one and then it took me two years until I had them all together. But when I had them all together and you know they're that younger grade school age where it's more difficult there's a university down the street and so I went on carecom. I searched by that university specifically and I looked for a college student who just had whatever. Give me a couple of hours three days a week, and so every year for probably three, four years, I had a college student come in a few hours and I would interview them and say what are you good at, what do you love? So we had one that was very athletic, and we had another one who liked to cook and another one who was whatever, and so I would just. We had another one who liked to cook and another one who was whatever, and so I would just delegate them to work with one of the kids for that couple hours, so we would otherwise someone's kind of just waiting. So that worked out really, really well.
Speaker 2:Now, if somebody didn't have the resources to pay, you know, an extra, I don't know. I think I was paying $15 an hour, if that's not a reality, I would look for an older homeschool kid in the community because they are usually wonderful. So I'd look for a high school student and create that same kind of scenario, because the kids love the one-on-one time and, trust me, I wasn't ever getting a break. I just felt like you know less spread thin if you will. So that was really helpful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's a great idea, and I've said that about parents that even are like I can't because I work and it's like, okay, are there older kids that are homeschooling in the? Area that could come in that would be like an internship for them or a job for them, really good experience.
Speaker 2:And school doesn't have to happen between eight and five. School can happen in the evening. There's so many things and school doesn't take that much time. I mean honestly, in any point in the 11 years, if we spent more than four hours a day homeschooling like actual academics, there wasn't that many days, because once you really pare it down to what you're doing, it's very efficient. It's very efficient, so can I? Talk about curriculums or no?
Speaker 1:I was just going to ask you what kind of curriculum were you using?
Speaker 2:For example, we I early on I found teaching textbooks absolutely love it for math just excellent, and I would, generally speaking, you probably want to work about a year above grade level. You don't have to, but we kind of found that to be the sweet spot for us. But teaching textbooks is great because the kids can work independently. So what we did for that again to be paced appropriately, I would, on the first day of school, each kid would go to the first test and if they scored at least an 85%, then day two we'd go to the next test and then the next test and then, wherever they ended up, I would. When they didn't score good enough, I'd bring them back those five lessons and that's where we'd start Instead of starting at lesson one, we sometimes they'd start at lesson 20.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's 15, whatever. But start them where they're not bored. It's not just busy work. We're not homeschooling for busy work. So teaching textbooks visually and audibly shows the whole lesson and then with each problem you enter the answer. If it's wrong you get a second chance, and if it's still wrong it explains the whole problem to you. It's brilliant. So and then when my kids didn't score at least 80% on a math lesson, I'd go back and I'd delete all the ones they got wrong so they'd be able to do it again. But that's a simple independent do on your own. So I would just tell them how many math lessons they needed to do a week. So then they learned their own time management of do they want to do it all in one day? Do they want to do one a day? However, that worked. So that's like a simple thing for math.
Speaker 2:We loved moving beyond the page when they were in elementary. That was like a literature spine, loved it. So, for example, like, let's say so, they had two sets of worksheets for each book, so my older kid could do the harder ones and the younger kid could do the little bit easier ones and it just was very open and go so your language arts, and then it would either be paired with math or science, depending on the book. So if it your language arts, and then it would either be paired with math or science, depending on the book. So if it was Charlotte's Web, then it would be paired with science for that unit, and so you'd get your science done and it related right to the. Maybe it was spiders or pigs or farm life, whatever. So we loved that. That was made it fun. And then if there was a book we didn't like, we just skipped that book and it fun. And then if there was a book we didn't like, we just skip that book and you know, just don't read things you hate. There's too, there's too many good literature books out there. I love that. So that was that was good. We loved Apologia for Science, which is it's a Christian curriculum, so that's not going to appeal to everyone, but they just they do an absolutely beautiful job for elementary Love that a lot.
Speaker 2:My kids took IEW classes for writing at our co-op Institute for Excellence in Writing, so that was great. They learned a lot there. It's not always the most exciting, but they did definitely learn how to write. So we loved that as well. And then I ended up creating some literature classes and taught them in our homeschool co-op for fourth through sixth grade and then also junior high, and that was awesome because I think it's a real lost art of kids loving books and I think people, educators I don't care if it's homeschool or not they pick these archaic books that you think need to be taught and I pick things that I thought kids would love and I was pretty successful at it and kids love my books and then they learn that reading can be enjoyable. You know it's hard to compete with video games. It really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what? Where did you find the books that you picked, or what were some of them? If you remember, alan Gratz is one author, G-R-A-T-Z.
Speaker 2:He does historical fiction and he is phenomenal. They're written for probably fifth, sixth grade level, but you can definitely use them in junior high. They're appropriate, you know, not too scary but super engaging. One called Refugee, which paralleled three different stories from different times. It was like World War II. And then a refugee in the he's coming out of Cuba in a boat, going to Florida, another one coming out of Syria in 2015. So you have the opportunity through these stories, to teach about all these different periods of history at the same time. And then he also does a lot with World War II, which kids love World War II. So we did a lot of that.
Speaker 2:I just did tons and tons of like Google searches, Amazon searches, teachers picks, things like that, and I just kept digging and digging and then I would read a bunch myself. There was one called Amal Unbound that I think it was Pakistan where it talks about the bonded slavery and what can happen in that situation and the realities of different cultural things around the world and how a lot of people there are illiterate and that keeps them really, you know, enslaved really. So we learned a lot about that. A little bit older would be. Ruta Cepedis is an excellent historical fiction author. She's got shoot. I can't think of it right now, but anyway she's great. That would be more junior high. Under the Painted Sky was another really, really great one and that was like kind of Oregon Trail and that kind of timeline. So yeah, we had a great time with that.
Speaker 1:I love that, because now had you always been into books and learning and stuff like that, or did the homeschooling bring that out of you?
Speaker 2:I mean, I do love reading and I did love, you know, reading as a kid. But, yes, I think kids learn best through real stories and that was my experience with my own kids and the kids that I taught. So I found the best way to teach history was through these fictional accounts, because they remember the people and they remember what happened to them and it just was. It was just highly effective.
Speaker 1:Even if the story wasn't true, it was like everything about the era was and this could have easily been a real person. You're still learning.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so I taught a lot about that. I would. I would create lists of 10 questions where the kids would go to YouTube and they would look at videos of that area of the country current day you know stuff like that and and connect it. That was. That was really good.
Speaker 1:And I find that I always kind of felt like the dumb one in school and you know like, oh, I really want to be smart, I just don't even know how to get there. You know the books that they'd want me to read.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I didn't have any interest, even though they were probably very good, like To Kill a Mockingbird, I think I read later in life and I was like, oh, that was good, but I didn't pay attention to it in class, like when they were forcing it upon me, probably just because they were forcing it upon me. But I love, I never really thought about that too with homeschool, like you can pick with your child, like what are you into? What do you want us to study next? Like let's look together.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a good point. When they were in elementary school, I let them choose the history and science topic every year. There's no reason you shouldn't. So when I had a fourth grader who loved horses, we did equine science and that's what we did all year is we studied horses. Then there was a year I don't know somebody was into birds, so we did bird science, which we live in Southern California. So we learned all sorts of stuff about feeding birds and local birds. We went down to the local bird feed store and now, to this day, we've got jelly feeders around our house with hooded Orioles that are here but many of our neighbors don't have them.
Speaker 2:So there's these really neat things that come out of. You know, going interest led is absolutely key. Don't follow some. I got to do this four year cycle of history, whatever. It doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter till high school. I don't even know if it matters then, but before that I would just highly encourage parents, ask them what they want to do for history when they were second third grade.
Speaker 2:We just did who was books and then, and they got to pick. So I bought like 40 of them and then I'm like, okay, pick one and then, depending on their age level, I would have them fill out like a template book, report form or write five things you remember or learn or what do you admire about this person. And that just was so much more powerful. And they remember those things because we tried mystery of history and some of these popular ones that people love, and they just okay, we were just getting through it. Well, we're not homeschooling just to get through it. We're going through stuff to remember things that have value, that are interesting, and then you know, like of course they were. I had one obsessed with world war ii so we did a road trip in our motor home across the southern united states so we stopped at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and they knew a lot about it. So that was fun. So there's just so many neat things you could do.
Speaker 1:And that's the thing, too, like going to a museum or a monument or a national park that you actually can study beforehand.
Speaker 1:It's like going to a concert when you know the music. It's way more fun. And if you go to a concert and you've never heard of this artist before, it's like all right, well, I'm just kind of going through the motions, but you're not really enjoying it. So I love that. Yes, Because I think of back to the field trips that we took in school and they didn't really tell us anything about where we were going and why we were going. What was the history about it? Right, when? Like? We will do that.
Speaker 2:We'll combine it and then you're trying to do it with 50 or 100 kids at a time and you can't see anything or hear it. Yeah so yeah, doing it in the small way is so important. My youngest kid, super artsy and quirky, always has been obsessed with the Beatles since she was in preschool. I ended up buying a $5 DVD for the car and it was one of those old Beatles movies. I mean, I bought a number of things and that was, and she just hinged on it and she, she's still into it. He's ninth grade now.
Speaker 2:Well, so last year we did 60s history and we used out. School is a wonderful resource If you're looking for something unusual or very niche in the homeschool world or if you have kids that are interested in Dungeons and Dragons or Roblox or whatever some of these games are. There's math or logic or language arts that are based around those contemporary topics or whatever. Maybe it could be Taylor Swift music or whatever your kid is into. So we found in 60s history and it was self-paced and great. She ate it up, absolutely loved it. So had we done something that everyone else was doing, I don't know that that would have grabbed her. She wouldn't remember it as well. So interest led is definitely the way to go okay.
Speaker 1:So now, since you have one in college, one graduate one, when you look at, like, what they're learning overall, because I talked to some families that are like, oh, and we're doing latin and we're doing poetry, and I'm looking at and I'm looking at myself and I'm like I don't know, am I going to have to suffer through learning Latin? Maybe if I knew more about Latin, I would be okay learning about it. Poetry, I don't know, I haven't found a love for it yet. Like are those things that we have to do?
Speaker 2:I don't think so at all. No, I and I mean you know some people are just very like. You know there's a really popular co-op around the country called Classical Conversations and that's great. And if you're into that classical education and you and your partner, like, really appreciate that and you really think there's a lot of value to that, awesome, and if your kid takes to it, I mean I love reading. I think reading is great. My kids really aren't readers, if I'm honest. They're really not. They just are who they are. I also love music and I think there's wonderful things to be. I think everyone should be in music. Well, I tried with all three. I've only got one musician.
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Speaker 2:So you're doing your child a disservice, like they're each made uniquely, and so our job is to help bring out their natural interests, bring out who they uniquely are, not you reliving you through them. So we have to get our egos in check and really be careful with that, because because that's when you end up with kids who are like I hate homeschooling, everything was horrible, blah, blah, blah. So if you're interest led and you're honoring the individual, that's important. But, like for me, everyone needs to eat, so everyone should know kind of how to cook and kind of how to eat. We need to move to some extent. I don't care what that is, but you have to do that. And I don't care where you live and how much money you have or don't have. You've got to know how to manage money or you're going to have a terrible life. So no Latin poetry whatever never happened in this house.
Speaker 1:And I don't think it will. Well, I love that honesty, and it's not because I'm against it, nobody's interested. I love that honesty. No, that's great and like. I grew up taking dance classes right and I would like compete. And they would always say you have to take ballet if you want to compete because that's like your foundation. I hated ballet, just hated it and hated it. I was just talking to a friend, a homeschooling mom, about this the other day. She goes you can get free tickets to the ballet and I'm like why would I suffer through the nutcracker again?
Speaker 1:yeah, I took my two boys to it and I'm like I don't know, no well, yeah, I grew up doing it and I just hated it then and I hate it now well, I have nothing to do with horses, and I had this.
Speaker 2:My oldest was just obsessed with horses from, like I don't know, early grade school, so then we got her in the horse lessons by fourth grade and then, I think, eighth grade, we finally bought her a horse. So that would not have been my dream to have this large animal. That wasn't. So we just have to honor who they are. I have a grand piano and okay, so everyone just take piano lessons, simple, right.
Speaker 2:Well, my youngest, first grade, I want to play the harp. I'm sorry, what A harp. Okay, so, and I'm just kind of ignoring her, whatever, she just wouldn't let it go. So finally I found someone who gave harp lessons and I'm like, okay, let's just let her play your harp, we'll do these lessons, but we won't own one because you can't rent them. It just was this whole big thing. Well, now you can't see it right now, but I've got a pedal harp in my living room. Let's see, it's right behind me. There it is, anyway. So here we are, years later. So they just are who they are. But you know, people are like, well, that's so great, you wanted her to play the harp. No, no, no, no, I didn't need her to play an instrument, that was the you know price of a car, but this is where we're at.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. So I just really encourage parents to just step back and listen, because they will tell you what they're interested in and what they want to learn. And listen because they will tell you what they're interested in and what they want to learn and where they want to go. And when you do that, we get so much disconnect in people not understanding what career they want or what their place is in the world, and it's because you know they're shoved in these boxes and then they're doing these four-year. I mean, if your four-year cycle of history works for you, that's awesome, that's great. But don't feel like you have to do that. I think you get some passionate, extraordinary individuals by really customizing and letting them be interest led in everything they do.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that goes back to the education system.
Speaker 1:And even you know, from the time I was three or four, it was okay, you have to be at the school at this time and you know, then it was okay before care and after care and at school, you know, and you're hearing the bells and they're telling me what I have to do for homework. So they're not only dictating what I learned during the day, but what I learned and what I do in the evenings, and and then the sports that are, you know, dictate for you to your time. And then, oh, you get to a point where you go to college, and it's the same thing, and then a career, and it's the same thing. And then I, you know, turn 40 and I'm like, what do I even like in life?
Speaker 1:I don't know what I would do as a homeschooler, because what would we do all day if somebody wasn't telling me where to be? And that's been in just the last couple of months a realization for me. And we've only been homeschooling for two years now because I started the podcast like should I homeschool? Are y'all weird? I was interviewing homeschoolers and I decided to do it and quit my government job. But it is awesome, really crazy to think like I can get up and we can, we can go kayaking if it's nice out, or we can go to a museum, or we can just stay in the house and like clean the house or do a project in the house you know like those science things that somebody bought for you for your birthday.
Speaker 1:Or stain a? You know stand down a bench and you know stain it. So it's really crazy to think of the things that you're missing out on.
Speaker 2:You don't even know that you like yes find it well and you bring up a good point. You know you have time to do all these other things, but the other big thing for me is teaching independence and self-sufficiency. So in my house, when you're 12, you get your own laundry and you need to learn how to. And it's not because I don't have time. I'm trying to raise competent individuals and you see, these people go to college who've never done any chores, who've never done laundry. They've done nothing because they're in school all day, and then if they're in sports, and then they have homework and all this. There's just not time. And I get that. But my kids need to know how to do things and they need to know how to manage money, and so we've done a lot with those types of things. And, yes, whatever your unique values are in your home, whether that's a religious or a work ethic or whatever it is you can weave that in so much more beautifully than you ever could if they were conventionally schooled.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, that's awesome, All right. So, as we kind of round out the hour here, what are just some advice or something that you would say to that homeschooling parent? That's like we're just on the edge of homeschooling, Like I want to, maybe I want to and my wife doesn't, or I want to and my husband doesn't like. What would you say to them? Or them to tell their spouse to get them on board? You kind?
Speaker 2:of have to go. Usually, people don't want to homeschool and it's out of a fear. It's a fear that the kids are going to be nerds or they're going to be socially awkward or whatever. Well, there's nerds and socially awkward people everywhere. So there's some in conventional school, there's some in homeschool. But go watch the homeschooled movie and you can see. I mean, my kids went to Taylor Swift at SoFi Stadium in the limousine, like they're just normal people, like they're not weird, we're not fringy, you can make it whatever you want. So whoever you are, they're going to come out reflecting you. But generally speaking, homeschool kids achieve higher and have better social skills and all that kind of stuff and get into colleges at a higher rate than conventionally schooled kids. So all that stuff has been debunked. You just have to look at it and homeschool should and can look different in every single household. So you can homeschool but kind of just oversee it, but farm out all the actual education.
Speaker 2:Online. There's some really great programs tons. Some are accredited, some are not. So you can make it whatever you want. So don't look at your neighbor and think you got to do what they do.
Speaker 2:I see a lot of people leaving private school and then buying the private school curriculum and homeschooling oh, it's so boring and so tedious. It's just not fun. So then when they stop being scared, then they start getting creative and they start searching. Kathy Duffy Reviews. Kathy with a C is an awesome website to search for curriculum. There's homeschool conventions in your community or in your state. Usually once a year there's a couple different ones CHIA, that's California, but great homeschool conventions that's the only place you can really go to see the curriculum. But go to YouTube and look at have somebody you know when they're unboxing a certain curriculum. That's really helpful.
Speaker 2:Outschool it's like Etsy, but for homeschoolers you can search by grade or interest level or whatever. That's an awesome thing. So there's so many resources out there now and it does not have to be expensive. You can literally homeschool elementary, probably for free, anyway, and the most expensive curriculum out there is probably $800 or something, which is insane in the homeschool world, but most things are really reasonable. So there's too many reasons to do it and you can always go back. You can always go back to conventional school. If it doesn't work, they'll take you. They have to.
Speaker 1:Have you ever had a child? Ask to go back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my senior has been in public school for two years. She went to public school two years ago. She wanted, she wanted to be out, she wanted to see, and you know we did a lot of things but she was like I just want to do what everybody else does. Great, go do it. And there's been pros and cons. But she's a senior there now. She started there her sophomore year. She's the vice president of ASB. She's in a school of 3000 kids, so it's a huge school. She's in link crew, which is a mentorship program for the ninth graders, so she's one of those mentors doing very well. And yeah, so she transitioned just fine, no problem, and she had homeschooled since second grade, so you know it works out.
Speaker 1:That's such a great point, like you're not a failure because your kid asked for a different experience. You set the foundation of what education is. You had that time together to create the bonds, to instill your values in her, and now she's taking it to the next level and being like almost like an inspiration to the other kids in her class to be like oh I, I want to be like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so cool and we totally tease her. We're like who checks themselves into a government institution, so like we call her the inmate and stuff like that. It's like kind of funny, but I'm super happy for her. Like that she can go there and she had never heard bells, so she's like like what's the bell about? And so that was kind of funny. There were just some things that she just was totally unaware of, but yeah, she's having a great time, so it's good it's good.
Speaker 2:so we're super. We're not like it's the scariest thing in the world and, trust me, there's stuff in california schools that are nuts. But you know, it's just another great talking point and we don't need to be afraid of it. We can just talk about it and be like, yeah, it doesn't line up with what we think, but you know you won't die being there, it'll be fine, it exists.
Speaker 1:You can talk about it, because once they hit the real world, whether they're in their career or whatever, they're gonna have to deal with it. Yeah, yeah, we don't believe in the bubble.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we've got to transition slowly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Christy, I love your energy, your outlook on everything. You're sitting here in your sports brawl like ready to get to go work out. It's so cool and refreshing. Thank you so much for taking the time today and I will put everything that all the recommendations that you gave and homeschooled the movie in the show's description so everyone can check it out. Thank you so much. Awesome, well, thanks for having me. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the homeschool how to. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.